Looking Ahead To Beijing 2022
It's time to bring the gang back together as we look ahead to the Winter Olympics in a matter of months to give our thoughts, excitement level and everything else in between! Can we get excited for the mascots and pronounce them right this time? What are the big hopes for both Canada and Australia in Beijing? Are our interviews getting us more excited ahead of the Games? Is it exciting to be talking about the 'real' Olympics? And what other interesting things will we find to talk about? Ski and slide your way into excitement level as you get pumped for some more great Olympic content!
EPISODE TRANSCRIPT
Please note this is an automated transcript that may contain errors.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is Off The Podium, An Olympics Podcast, coming to you today for Not An Interview. Yeah, we're sick of talking to those bloody Olympians. Oh, look at me. I've been to the Olympics. I'm so good. We're here to talk about the Olympics with two people, three people, who haven't been to the Olympics before. Hello to all our former Olympic guests who have given us their time. We appreciate it. But we're here to bring you a Looking Ahead To Beijing 2022 episode. Now that we've done with the Tokyo Olympics, we're Looking Ahead To The Next Olympics, which are in Beijing, the real Olympics, the Winter Olympics. We did an episode similar to this back in 2017 ahead of Pyeongchang, so we thought, let's do it again, because we need a break from interviews and we want to get the gang back together because we missed Jarrod's voice, let's be honest. We don't care about Collins. But anyway, we're excited for this episode. I'll be silent.
COLIN HILDING: From this point on, I won't say a word, I promise.
BEN WATERWORTH: Let me check my checklist here. Bag out everyone. Okay, done. My name is Ben. You can find me at hatemail.com. And I mentioned both our esteemed co-hosts' name already, but I'll introduce them right now. Joining us from the very wintery destination of Emu Plains in beautiful locked down at New South Wales, it is Jarrod Loobeek. Jarrod, what day are we on to now of the lockdown? Have you gone insane yet?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think well past the insane point, Cabin Fever. But yeah, the lovely, lovely Plains of Emu, I feel is perfect. I want to say perfect curling territory, if we were to put in a bid.
BEN WATERWORTH: And just quickly, Jarrod, how many members are in a curling team?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Five.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, you've learned in four years. Look at you go. Edgimacated. And speaking of Edgimacated, joining us from the actual winter city of Winnipeg, the future host of the 2038 Winter Olympics, it's Colin Hilding. Winnipeg is the host. Colin's not hosting the Winter Olympics.
COLIN HILDING: I will host it right in my backyard.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin Hilding, 2038. Welcome, Colin. Always a pleasure to see your face.
COLIN HILDING: It usually is, unless you're Jamie. You're just sick of it. But I'm excited here. No, she'll never get sick of it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Stop it, we get it, he's hot.
COLIN HILDING: But I'm looking forward here to talking about our looking ahead to 2038 Olympics. And flip-flon.
BEN WATERWORTH: We like to look ahead a lot. All these podcasts, oh, let's look ahead to the next Olympics. No, let's look ahead to the 2038 Olympics, because we're really on the-
COLIN HILDING: Looking ahead to Tokyo, 21, 22.
BEN WATERWORTH: We're a bit slow. Looking ahead to Atlanta, 1996. Happy 25th anniversary, by the way, to Atlanta, 1996. I should say that I've started to get my Winter Olympic medals now from the internet, which is good. So I am today wearing my Pyeongchang gold, and I'm actually excited for my Pyeongchang gold, because this is the only one I own where they've actually put an event on it. Usually it's just a generic one. This is like an actual Winter gold medal. So I want to say that I am the reigning Olympic champion in alpine skiing women's downhill. So I was very proud of my achievements in the women's downhill back in Korea.
COLIN HILDING: Can you just refresh my memory here? Did Australia win a gold in Pyeongchang?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, we did not.
COLIN HILDING: You are the winner! The winner of Australia in the Olympics!
BEN WATERWORTH: I think I took Esther's gold away from her. Sorry, that was a super G. Wrong one. Sorry. Geez, I'm forgetting Esther's gold. Oh my God, I'm going crazy here.
COLIN HILDING: You'll never come on the show now.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, we've lost every single chance. But we're obviously just going to go over some things to do with Beijing, talk about how we're feeling, talk about how Canada's looking, how Australia's looking, how Sudan's looking. I don't know. Sudan, the country of Africa. What did you think I said? Hussein. Look how Sudan Hussein's going. See if the grave's rotten over yet. I don't know.
COLIN HILDING: He's trying out for the biathlon for Iraq.
BEN WATERWORTH: He is. The deadathlon. Too soon to make Sudan Hussein jokes. It's been 18 years. I think we can move on. Jarrod, let's start with you. The last time I re-listened to our Looking Ahead To Beijing 2018. No, hang on. Pyeongchang. Thank you. 2018. Got there eventually. Good to see we finally got to listen to that episode. But you, during that episode, sounded not very excited for the Winter Olympics. Jarrod, you're like, yeah, they're okay. Now that you've covered a whole Winter Olympics and you've heard us talk to them, what are your thoughts now ahead of your next Winter Olympics? Are you more excited now for another Winter Games?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I feel like I'm more on board now. I think, you know what's clinched it for me? It's the skateboarding from the Summer Olympics. It has made me look forward to this because now we can have still some young athletes, but professional young athletes who take it seriously and the medals mean something to them. No, yeah, I'm super keen. I think because they're so close together, maybe it's kind of like the Summer Olympic hype is almost like it stays on because they're so close. But yeah, looking forward to it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm with you with the skateboarding. It's definitely made them more appealing, I think, moving forward. Colin, I posed this to you last time because again, this is where Canada actually can get more excited. How are you feeling a couple of months out now? Obviously, we're doing this a little bit closer than we did in terms of the last one. But yeah, are you getting the snow boots on? Are you getting the Lululemon ready to go? Seems as if they've changed official supplies. We'll talk about that at some point.
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to need to stock up on my Lululemon now. I feel like I'm not a proper Canadian anymore. I'm always excited for the Winter Olympics, more so than the Summer, and I have nothing against the Summer Olympics. It's just... I feel like we get... It's weird that we have less sports, but we get more variety, at least in the TV coverage, with the Winter Olympics, because it's not nine straight days of one sport. I'm sure it's even worse over there, from what I've heard, but... In a way, I kind of agree with Jarrod, that we've had the skateboarding, so it makes me more excited, not for the reason Jarrod gave, but because we just got through with about five new sports, and at least half of them were complete garbage. And I'm kind of excited that our new sports are just more of the same this time around. We don't have to worry about, here's this new great sport that's going to end up sucking, and we wasted two hours of our lives watching it.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, I'm disappointed that ski ballet hasn't officially been put as a proper sport this time around. But you're absolutely right. We're doing... Our next sort of group episode will be a sports episode, one that we've kind of talked about a little bit, and obviously we'll discuss that. But this is, as we've talked a lot about on this show, why the Winter Olympics are so great, because we've got, what, 15 sports, and there's not a single dad sport at the Winter Olympics, whereas the 58 sports you've got at the Summer Games, you know, cut 12 of them, and you're kind of golden. But yeah, I mean, this is what's so good about it. There's nothing boring about the Winter Olympics. It's exciting. The fact that it's so close to Tokyo. Canada's excited. Canada's coming off the back of the Summer Games. Australia, we're coming into a Winter Olympics, Jarrod, on a bit of a drought. We haven't won a gold medal at the Winter Olympics in 12 years. Like, this is unheard of for Australia. I mean, we did go, what, like 60 without winning one, but now we're 12 years without winning one. Like, we don't know how to do it. So it's all very exciting times right now. And we always said during Tokyo that it was going to be a quick turnaround, where we're pumped and we're excited for it. But I like this. I like this kind of six-month sort of turnaround. Having said that, you go longer periods without a games. Don't want that. But it's kind of exciting to kind of think about how we're only a couple of months away, basically, from talking about another Olympics. There are new events at Beijing, we should say. There's obviously no... Sort of, sort of. But they've basically added seven new events. Not sports, just events in terms of established sports, but new events. And if I'm not mistaken, they don't remove sports at the Winter Olympics. This is what I want to talk a lot about in our sports episode, that the problem is with you bringing new events and new sports, you've got to lose other events, because generally IOC aren't going to be like, here's 30 new medals. It's kind of like, we've only got 300 medals, so lose 30 of them so we can include these 30 others, which is a bit disappointing. But from what I know, I think the Winter Games don't remove sports to increase them, if that makes sense. So the seven new events, and one of these we're very familiar with, because we've spoken to, of course, some athletes from this sport, and Australia has a very, very good chance of winning a gold medal in this event. The Women's Mono Bob, which just sells itself. Mono Bob is just one of these sports that should have been a sport a long time ago. We had the Short Track Mixed Team Relay. We love the mixed event, so bring in the Mixed Team Relay. We got the Ski Jumping Mixed Team Event, the Freestyle Skiing Big Air Men and Women. So what have we now got? Ski... Didn't we already have Big Air? Oh, that was Snowboard. Snowboard. So now we've got... And just... and having listened to our Pyeongchang one, we were all like, what the hell is Big Air? It was a great event. You know, New Zealand wind medals in it. So it's got to be doing something right. The Aerials Mixed Team Event and the Snowboard Cross Mixed Team Event. So basically five Mixed Team Events and skiing, big air and monobob. So I'll start with you, Colin. What stands out for you in the new sports, the new events, I should say, that we're seeing in Beijing?
COLIN HILDING: I mean, monobobs going to be interesting. You know, we have a bit of invested interest in that now on the show. You know, the mixed events, I like mixed events. I think the issue I have with is if they end up staggering it where it's last, if you do follow that sport, are you already going to kind of be burned out on the men's and women's events? So by the time you get to the mixed one, it's like we talked about a lot during Tokyo. I've had enough of the swimming now. Let's move on to something else. So I would almost rather they do the mixed events first and then move on to the individual ones after that.
BEN WATERWORTH: We know you don't like the mixed events column. We went over this in Tokyo.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah. Well, I think there's a difference between the mixed racing events where it was just all strategy and even the commentators were like, I'm not entirely sure what I'm watching here. And a mixed team event, you know, like mixed team figure skating, I think is really interesting to watch. So, but yeah, I think put those first and then put the individual events on after that. And then you don't really have to worry about getting burned out as much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jarrod, what stands out for you? And please also join me in saying that we have always been on board with the mixed event.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, no revisionist history here. The mixed events are great. I hope in the, I hope in the relays, we get men competing against women. So you don't know who's ahead until the very end. It makes it much more exciting. Obviously looking forward to the monobob, even though all I can think of is mono means one, and Bob means Bob. But yeah, I think that they're all good inclusions. And like you say, I'm glad like the Winter Olympics that we get these, like events, new sports, whatever you want to differentiate, we're not losing things along the way, which is good. Yeah.
COLIN HILDING: You know, I was just going to say with that, is this just a matter of they have more breathing room? Because I'm trying to think about when the first Winter Olympics were that expanded to 16 days, because it used to be 16 for the summer, 14 for the winter. It was recent. Yeah, it was recent enough that I can remember one of the games. Maybe it was Vancouver. Maybe it was Sochi. Still in the back of my mind thinking, oh, this is only a 14-day thing.
BEN WATERWORTH: I don't know. I wasn't aware of that. I always just thought the winters were also 16 always. I mean, look, I could find out. At the top of my head, I would guess maybe, was it Nagano? Because they included two new sports, and they hadn't, you know, maybe Lilahama, because I think that was when they first included aerials from memory. So kind of there was expansion of freestyle skiing in general. So possibly in the 90s when they started adding some more sports. Because I think the thing with the winters is that, you know, we haven't really had an addition of a brand new sport since skeleton? Like, I'm not thinking about events. Like in terms of when was skeleton introduced? That was Salt Lake was the first, you know.
COLIN HILDING: Snowboard, Nagano, and then skeleton was Nagano.
BEN WATERWORTH: And then freestyle skiing was Lillehammer. And obviously we've had additional events. Like it's expanded. But did we have any new sports 2006? No, like I remember 2010. No, 14, eight. No. So like it's been a while in the winter since we've had like a completely brand new sport. So yeah, maybe they can kind of do it. And then I guess like you've got like half the medals would you have in the winters? Like again, we're very highly on the stats here. We do our research. But clearly I like that though, kind of going to the point where they can introduce seven new events and it's not coming at the cost of others. Like, you know, I think they've done it in the past because we lost parallel giant slalom, but I think we've got it back now. And kind of some of these events that kind of come and go. But yeah, and I think sort of with the mixed ones, just to bag out Colin a bit, I don't know, like, I think, like, what your point said about, like, the figure, figure skating to me is one that you definitely have as a, like, that makes sense have mixed, right? Because, I mean, generally pairs are mixed, right? You don't have same gender pairs in figure skating. You know, when we had the mixed curling coming in at Pyeongchang, like, that makes sense. Some of these sports where having men and women compete in the same sport doesn't really affect it, essentially. You know, like, it's no disrespect to men and women, but there are certain sports where, you know, you're never going to have the 100 metre sprint, you know, men versus women. It's kind of just, it's not going to say it. I'd watch it. I'm not saying it's impossible, but just saying that you're not really going to have it.
COLIN HILDING: Just to confirm, yeah, it was Salt Lake City was the, when they expanded to the 16 days.
BEN WATERWORTH: Oh, really? Wow, okay. Interesting. There you go. Jarrod, did you know that? Jarrod, you're a winter expert. You would have known that, wouldn't you?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, absolutely. You were just sitting there, biting all the stats.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, you're biting your tongue. Come on, Ben, like, you know, don't just, I know everything really when it comes to it. So, but I guess other sort of big new things that are happening for, we should really touch on the fact that, obviously mentioned well-known fact, Beijing becoming the very first city to host a winter and a summer Olympics and only 14 years apart. It's actually quite close. I think Berlin, or was it Munich? I think it was Berlin, wasn't it? Bid for a winter Olympics and came close. Maybe it was Munich. It was a German city. Bid and nearly got it. I think they lost to Pyeongchang or Sochi from memory. But I think it's interesting this has taken so long to kind of have this, because there are definitely cities who can do this. Clearly, Beijing's got it. But only 14 years after, I mean, Jarrod, we all remember Beijing. We all remember the summer Olympics. What a great game they were. I mean, the opening ceremony, one of the best opening ceremonies we've ever seen. So it gives us hope. We might actually get our first good opening ceremony since London. But Sochi was OK. I mean, what's your thoughts on just Beijing generally as a city and kind of this history-making moment that we're seeing in a couple of months' time?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think it's exciting. Like you say, to me, it feels like it's almost a little bit too soon. But I think the fact that I suppose it was a summer and a winter Olympics, it feels obviously very different. But yeah, I think it's about time, and I like that now we're getting... This will be a city that's hosted both. We're getting kind of these joint bids. It feels like the whole process is expanding a bit more, and it's just making for more exciting events moving forward.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think the only... I mean, obviously not different versions. Obviously, this was two winter games. Innsbruck had the games in 64 and then 76. And again, off the top of my head, I think Innsbruck were sort of a replacement in 76 from memory. I don't think they were the first choice. I'm not sure. No, it was Lake Placid that got it over. Denver originally got the games, but that got changed out, didn't it? So I can't remember what sort of happened there, but yeah. Colin, your take on sort of Beijing generally.
COLIN HILDING: I think it's exciting because when you get a new Olympics or when you get Olympics in a city that hasn't been before, you not only get exposed to the venues, but even just the whole environment. And we're sort of used to seeing Beijing as that summer city now, even though it could be a winter city. What's also crazy is just yesterday, I was kind of looking up to see, well, how much new venues did they have to put in for this? Because you would assume anytime an Olympics comes in, you got all new venues. I mean, with Rio, it was all new venues. The majority of the venues they have are preexisting in Beijing for the Winter Olympics. So I don't know if they just were preparing for this for so long that they figured, OK, one day we're going to get a Winter Olympics. Let's just cut the costs and do it now so we don't have to do it later on. But I mean, obviously, they've been ready for this and have wanted to do it. I think the thing that's going to be most exciting about this is, as you said, the opening ceremonies, because we've seen what Beijing can do and seen what they can do in winter. I mean, put a different spin on it. Let's just hope that we don't have treadmills or flies or anything, all of the famous things we're going to remember from Tokyo. But yeah, I wonder, there are countries that have done both winter and summer. But to get the same city, that's that whole environment thing I was saying. We've seen the streets of Beijing, we've seen their Olympic Square, and to see it all covered in snow will just be something new and different.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just quickly before I touch on that and some of the venues, it actually, and this would be something that we can talk about when we eventually kind of do our individual episodes on the Games in the Future or something along those lines. But when summer and winters were in the same year, Olympics were awarded basically to a country in that year. So for example, if the Olympics were in Lake Placid that February, they would then be in the US later that summer. That's kind of how it used to work. You got awarded both in the same year. That changed obviously a while back. But I will correct myself, Innsbrook got the Games because Denver, that was the year that Denver got them. So I thought that was when Lake Placid got it, but Denver won the Olympics that year. But they pulled out. They basically had a referendum in Colorado. Like, no, we don't want them. So they then gave the Olympics to Whistler in Canada. And then they basically were like, no, we don't want them. So anyway, so Salt Lake City put their hand up, we'll host them. And then IC were like, no, America, we don't trust you anymore. So then they basically went to Innsbrook because they had the facilities and they were ready to go.
COLIN HILDING: Innsbrook got the sloppy fourths, Denver, Whistler, so on, so on.
BEN WATERWORTH: There you go. Thanks, North America, for screwing those ones up. I think that was the big rumour. I remember back in 2016 that Rio were just so unprepared that basically Melbourne would have gotten them because it was like Melbourne are ready to go. They could host it in a short notice. But yeah, the venue thing is an interesting thing you mentioned. Obviously, we're going to have the bird's nest back for the opening and closing ceremony, which that's got to be the biggest stadium to ever have a winter opening ceremony. What Roger's centre only is about 40, 50, 60,000 right in Vancouver. So this is 80,000. I don't think they're there because you don't need a massive stadium for the Winter Olympics, because you don't have any events in your stadium for an opening and closing ceremony, right? So 80,000 for a winter Olympic opening ceremony is going to be pretty special. The water cube is now what? The curling cube, because they're basically where they had the swimming, is now going to be curling. And Isocki is going to be at the indoor stadium, and you've got the National Convention Centre is where the international broadcasting system is. So they've got a couple of new venues. They've obviously got to build a massive speed skating oval, new venue. They have to build a new Olympic village because the old one has been repurposed. And I think the thing that a lot of people sort of have question about Beijing, though, is that like a lot of winter Olympic cities, you've got kind of your indoor cluster, you know, your hockey, your curling, your figure skating. They're going to be held indoors, and that can be held in the city. But the skiing events, and I don't know if this is the furthest they've ever been away from the main city. I know obviously Whistler is not exactly Vancouver. It's a couple of hours away. Old cities like that, Sochi was that, Pyeongchang, they were all kind of separate. But this might be the furthest away. And I'm sorry if I'm wrong on this one, because the skiing areas are actually kind of nowhere near Beijing. So you've got the, and I'm going to butcher these pronunciations, the Yangquing Cluster, which will have alpine skiing, bobsleigh, delusion, skeleton, and also a separate Olympic Village and a media centre for those athletes and the media there. And then, God, help me with this pronunciation, the Zhang Jikao Cluster. That wasn't too bad. So you're going to have the biathlon, the cross-country, the ski jumping, the Nordic combined, and the snowboarding. And they're not close. They are not close. China is a very big country. So these are very, very separate there. Colin, just, I mean, just on that, do you like that sort of idea? I mean, this is kind of the direction the IRC wants to look at in the future anyway, of spreading them out a little bit more, not necessarily focusing. We're seeing that a bit with the Brisbane beard, of course, kind of the, it's more of a Southeast Queensland beard, but obviously geography is not spread that differently. But kind of, this is the way you kind of have to have the Winter Olympics sometimes, isn't it?
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I mean, particularly because of the skiing. For a person who doesn't live in Beijing, it really doesn't make a difference. I mean, when we were watching the Tokyo Olympics and the marathon and the race walk, I don't think any of us were like, oh, Sapporo, that's not even Tokyo. This isn't fair. But then when we talked to a couple of those athletes, the marathon and race walk athletes, they were saying like, yeah, this was really far away, and you weren't even in an Olympic village. So I do kind of feel for the athletes who maybe, especially now where they might have to quarantine and all that, they're not really going to be able to be part of the rest of the athlete experience. But watching it on TV, I mean, I've been to Vancouver. I know where Whistler is. That didn't even bother me there.
BEN WATERWORTH: Which, Jarrod, before I get your thoughts, I mean, we should really mention that, of course, famously the equestrian for the Melbourne Olympics was held in Sweden, of course. So that's a little bit further away than Melbourne. And the Paris Olympics surfing is going to be held in Tahiti, which, you know, as Australians, we could probably go to the surfing and still say we're going to the Paris Olympics. Jarrod, I mean, does it kind of affect you at all, Jarrod? I mean, kind of any thoughts on how they sort of have to do this sometimes?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, it's an interesting one. It's just interesting how I suppose the host city gets their name and branding over everything and almost feels like there's not any recognition of where else in the country it's held.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's kind of like, yeah, making the China, but I guess it's kind of the same as we just saw in Tokyo, right? We're still seeing Tokyo 2020 when the goddamn things are in 2021. So, you know, what does it really matter? I'm seeing here that the budget, 3.9 billion, yeah, right, probably be a bit more than that. But one tenth of the Beijing Summer Olympics, which were at $43 billion. So pretty crazy to think about that. We still don't know if there's going to be... Go, go, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: I just want to add with that, if that is the case, I'm not calling the liars, but maybe you're liars. But if that is the case... But does this now open the doors for a lot of other cities being able to host Winter Olympics just because this has become the big problem where nobody wants to host the Olympics anymore because of the cost. If China and Beijing can prove, hey, we can do this for a tenth of the cost. I mean, probably not every country is going to do that. Maybe we get a lot more of these host cities repeating in opposing games.
JARROD LOOBEEK: I think Tokyo's opening ceremony opened a lot of doors.
BEN WATERWORTH: Touche. Yeah, I think this is the thing, though, that I think Thomas Bach has tried to do a lot. And this is where, you know, things have really changed up with bids, haven't they? You know, we've just seen a city being awarded the Olympics 11 years out from an Olympic Games unheard of. And we basically don't know any timeframe for it. So there's even rumours going around that they might award the 2036 Olympics before Paris. Who knows? But yeah, I think with the winter ones, I think they've always been open to that, because, as I said, Berlin or Munich got very, very close to it. I think Stockholm, I mean, obviously, their venues will be a little bit older, because it's been a long time since they had the Olympics. But I think sort of they were looking at that with that as well. But it's also these regional bids that they're sort of really looking at. The World Cup are doing that a lot more now. You're about to see that in 2026 with Canada, USA and Mexico, of course. But obviously, Milano-Cortino is, I guess, technically the first dual city bid, isn't it? I mean, obviously, you know, Vancouver Whistler. Yeah, I mean, but it never was marketed as Vancouver Whistler, was it?
COLIN HILDING: But there you go. There you go. To Jarrod's point, now we're spreading the credit around. Yeah, well, I know when the Canada Games are here in Winnipeg, it was weird that the rowing was here in Winnipeg, but some of the rowing was in Canora, Ontario, which is a two-hour drive, but a different province. So you feel bad for Canora. It could have been Winnipeg, Canora in 2016.
BEN WATERWORTH: But it's kind of... I mean, the Brisbane bid was always marketed as a Southeast Queensland bid, because having lived in Brisbane, they get very offended when you say, oh, Gold Coast and Brisbane are the same place. They go off at you. People on the Gold Coast don't care. They like the credibility. They're not so trashy then. But I mean, I lived smack bang between Brisbane and the Gold Coast. It was the same time for me to get to the Gold Coast as it was for me to get to Brisbane. It just felt like the same place to me. But you don't say that to people and go, we're not the Gold Coast, we're Brisbane. But they're still marketing that as Brisbane 2032, not Southeast Queensland 2032.
COLIN HILDING: If you had won the Hobart bid, could it have potentially been Hobart Snug? Would you have stood for that?
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, very, very much so. It could have been. But in all realistic nature, if that was a thing, it would be a Tasmania bid. It would probably have to be marketed as Tasmania because we can't. I mean, the whole state of Tasmania is almost like, it takes me about the same time to get to Hobart to our next biggest city, Launceston, as it would if you're downtown Sydney to get to Penrith. You know, and that's just a suburb of Sydney. So that's kind of how it works. I want to talk about, just with the sports aspect, we should mention one thing. Big thing for ice hockey. We missed out in 2018, sadly. NHL players did not play, so we got kind of ice hockey light. But it's official. We are getting the big guns back. They're coming back. Well, 99%, I was reading before, there are still some terms and conditions. There are chances that they might not go. But on paper, we will have the big stars of the NHL back at the Olympics. Now, Jarrod, as somebody who I know is obsessed with ice hockey, you can't get enough. Does this excite you? I mean, I know you enjoyed watching the ice hockey in Pyeongchang, so it probably didn't make much of a difference to you. But I'm sure if you know the likes of Sydney Crosby, you know, and Austin Matthews, Conor McDavid, I'm sure those names get you excited that you're going to see them wearing a Team Canada jersey potentially in a few months' time.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, absolutely. I'm just, I'm all for the Olympics having the best players in whatever sport. And like there's obviously the hockey question, and there's like the NBA question always comes up every now and then with the Dream Team. But as far as I'm concerned, the Olympics should be like the pinnacle of the sport. So I'm all for having the best players being allowed to compete.
BEN WATERWORTH: And the thing that always baffles me with hockey is that you have a world championships every single year. This isn't a sport where they are every two years, every four years. Literally every year there is a world championship of ice hockey. Generally, NHL players don't play because they what? Generally played at the same time as the Stanley Cup finals. You don't get that talent pool that you do get at an Olympics. So this really is the pinnacle of international ice hockey. Don't say that to the Europeans. They'll get offended by that. Oh, no, the world championships are the real things. Yeah, because you can put your pro players in. The North Americans don't. But this, yeah, I'm with you. I think the Olympics should be the peak. Do that. Colin, this was obviously huge news, I'm guessing, for you guys, because I mean, you did all right in Pyeongchang. You still got to bronze without your good players. We won't mention that you lost to Germany. But hey, the last two times the NHL players allowed you on gold. So yay, guaranteed gold for Canada, surely.
COLIN HILDING: This is interesting, because I'm not saying I'm not excited to see the NHL players because we are going to get the best. But I know before Pyeongchang, maybe it was, OK, let's put a positive spin on this. But I was kind of excited at the aspect of, we're going to get these amateur athletes competing, and maybe it would be a little bit more unpredictable. And it ended up being unpredictable. So I would have been OK one way or the other if they decided they were just going to go with amateur players again and no NHL players. I could have dealt with that. I am surprised, though, that it's during COVID that they're OK. The players are saying, no, now we're OK with it. Last time, that was too much, but now we're OK with it. But it's going to be incredible one way or the other to see all the greatest players in the world competing. And I feel like, unlike with basketball, it is a little bit more up in the air still. I mean, not so much as if it were the amateurs like we had last time around, but we have enough countries that really have stacked rosters that it's competitive one way or the other.
BEN WATERWORTH: The captures are, so the reason why I say 99%, so there is an opt out clause. So the NHL and the NHL Players Association have basically said that should the COVID situation worse or pose a threat to players, they can pull out. And another one too is if the 2021-2022 NHL season is affected by game cancellation. So essentially, if there's enough cancellations and they're building up, they've got to reschedule enough games that they can't have their sort of what, two, three week break in February, that the NHL can basically be like, no, they're our players, you can't have them. Which I can imagine is shitty for the players because from what I'm reading, the players all want to play in the Olympics. It's kind of all comes down to the NHLPA and the NHL. And there were things around like rights of using footage, and the Olympics should use NHL logos in their footage, and just kind of like all these kind of, you know, little petty things that they're trying to do, which I guess you can understand it from a marketing perspective. But I can't imagine if you're, you know, one of these big name superstars. And one thing that I respect about NHL players when they go to the Olympics compared to the NBA plays is they always want to go. It's like Sidney Crosby is never going to be like, nah, I've got to promote Space Jam 2 rather than going to the Olympics. I've already won a couple of golds. Screw that. He's on board. He wants to go. Sorry, LeBron James, but you were that big of a deal. No, not the Olympics. As if I need to go there. I kind of respect that. And it seems to me, Colin, that winning a Stanley Cup is great, but still to win an Olympic gold medal for Canada is almost up there, if not bigger for a lot of players.
COLIN HILDING: Probably bigger, yeah. Also, I think that being in the middle of the season probably is a big difference between that and basketball, whereas the NBA, they're like, we want you guys to come on your vacation to do this, whereas with NHL, we're going to give you a two to three week break, and you get to go compete for something even bigger. Obviously, you're going to get a lot more people jumping at that.
BEN WATERWORTH: What a shit vacation. Like, oh, two weeks of the Olympics. Why would we care about that?
COLIN HILDING: In all fairness, if it's Tokyo and you're being quarantined and you're playing for nobody, I can kind of get it.
BEN WATERWORTH: If I'm playing at the Olympics, I would play for nobody. Come on, give me an opportunity. The thing that is actually interesting, though, they've released the groups for the Olympics for both the men and the women. And Canada and the US are in both groups together. So interesting, because according to this, USA are only ranked sixth in the world in the men. So they're in the pool A with Canada. Oh, you've got Germany again, Colin, in your group. Uh-oh, here you go. It's on.
COLIN HILDING: And some of those guys from the last Olympics have moved up, so now they're going to be repeating.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, but also you've got the whipping boys. You've got Team China. So a couple of double-digit wins going on in that group. And in the women's side of things, Canada and USA in the group with Finland, Rock and Switzerland. And in group B, you've got Japan, China, and Qualifier 1, Qualifier 2, and Qualifier 3. I'm going for Qualifier 3. Might be Australia.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, right.
BEN WATERWORTH: I think we're in about tier 12 of the women's. I think we're in about tier 2 of the men's.
COLIN HILDING: You're in the mix with Trinidad and Tobago.
BEN WATERWORTH: We could be up there. You never, never know. I want to talk, obviously, about Australian and Canadian chances. Canadian-nays. Let's start with Canada first, because I feel we'll be here for longer than talking about the Australian ones. You're obviously a moguls man, so you can talk about moguls, but are there some that are already being talked up? You've got somebody who's a lock, like be it the men's or the women's ice hockey teams, the moguls. Who's right now really out there for Canada that's looking like a lock? And are there predictions going on about let's go for more medals than we did in Pyeongchang or anything along those lines?
COLIN HILDING: There's no talk at all. It's more or less you just go in expecting what do we always medal in, which is hockey, men's and women's, and moguls. I think with moguls, that's the closest thing to a lock. I would say on both the men's and women's sides, we're basically going to see, unless there's some freak occurrence, a repeat of the same golds from the Pyeongchang with France for the women's and Canada for the men's. McHale Kingsbury, who I don't think it's even possible to beat the man, last season was the only time he didn't win the Crystal Globe, which is the big trophy for the season. And the only reason he didn't win is because he missed six weeks due to an injury, and they cancelled so many events, he only competed three times. So three competitions, and he still, I think, came in second for the season after missing like four others. So I think that's the closest thing to a lock. Other than that, it's weird. There's no talk at all about what our hopes are. And with Tokyo, I feel like there was a lot more, obviously less than there was Australia. We talked about that in our Tokyo preview. Still not a lot here in Canada. I think we're just so timid. We don't want to predict anything. I kind of want to know. Tell me where our hopes are right now. Tell me that there's a chance. Curling is really tricky, too, because I don't think they've decided yet, and the qualification hasn't happened. And what happened with Pyeongchang is that there was sort of an upset going in, and the one that we thought, oh, this is our best chance of winning a medal, didn't end up qualifying. And that's just sort of, we talked with a couple of curlers, just one of the freak occurrences that happened with curling. So it's tough to say if we'll even be able to win in curling. I think with the mixed doubles for curling, that's probably the best shot we have. But everything's so up in the air, I mean, there's no way to call it at this point, except for hockey. We'll win something in hockey.
BEN WATERWORTH: You say, you wait till Tali and Dean take on Canada in that new, you watch your backs Canada.
COLIN HILDING: I'm rooting for them. I'm rooting for them there. Because we can still kind of claim, we can pull in Australia, we can still kind of claim, well, that's sort of ours. You sort of Canadian.
BEN WATERWORTH: It kind of works. Here's a trivia question for you. We did this during Tokyo, when we were thinking, what sports have the US never won Olympic medals in? I think there was five in summer, and like one or two in the winter. What are the two sports, Colin Hilding, that Canada have never won a winter Olympic medal in, ever?
COLIN HILDING: Hello, Casper.
BEN WATERWORTH: Do you have an answer to this question? Casper, tell us.
COLIN HILDING: What's sport? You're trying to grab something off of here. Yeah, you take that Spider-Man pop figure. All right. Yeah. Oh, you go upstairs with those, okay?
BEN WATERWORTH: I want a Spider-Man pop figure. All right.
COLIN HILDING: No, no, you don't need that. Question again. So I'm going to say Nordic combines one.
BEN WATERWORTH: Correct. That would be one.
COLIN HILDING: Second one. I got no idea. I'm going to guess the snowboard halfpipe.
BEN WATERWORTH: Well, it's more of a not an event base. It's more of the overall sport. So I'll throw it over to Jarrod. Jarrod, can you give me a sport that you think Canada's never won an Olympic medal in?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Ski jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Ding, ding, ding, ding, ding. We have a winner. Yes. I was going to give it away and say, think about Nordic combined.
COLIN HILDING: We're cursed. We just don't like jumping.
BEN WATERWORTH: Apparently not. There you go. But yeah, interesting. You see, I will in a moment. We'll talk about Australia here in a second with Jarrod, but I've got our good friends over at Grace Note. So we had in the lead up to Tokyo. We've got our virtual medal table here, which I can update you on how they think Canada's going. Obviously, back in Pyeongchang, I'm saying that correctly, you won 11 gold, 8 silver, 10 bronze, total of 29, finished third, which was up on your Sochi total. Four more medals, one more gold. So, and of course, famously, won three more medals in total than you won in Vancouver. So your most successful Winter Olympics ever. No pressure for Beijing there, Colin. Jarrod, here's a trivia question for you. Can you name all the sports Australia have never won Winter Olympic medals in? Actually, let's flip it around. Let's flip it around. Name the sports Australia have won Winter Olympic medals in. Can you remember that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: So many, so many to pick from. We've done a ride in the aerials, you know, the moguls, speed skating.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yep.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Short track. Short track, yes. The half pipe is a good well that we like to go to. Yep. The, what's that one called where they race? The snowboard cross.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's that one where they race? So, okay, so snowboarding, we've won medals in short track, speed skating, freestyle skiing, and the one we always forget, alpine skiing. Dear old Zali, of course, won us a, so we've got four that we've won medals in. So yay, go Australia. Don't know how our chances are in Nordic combined this time around, but we'll cross our fingers. But I mean, Jarrod, it's a little bit more difficult for us as Australians, because again, we don't know who half these athletes are until two minutes before the Olympics. But obviously, we've been lucky enough to have a couple on the show. We do have her on the show very, very soon. The big one I think we're all looking at is Greta Small, our aerial reigning world champion. Not Greta Small, sorry. Greta Small's our alpine skier. Look at me go here. Laura Peele. I don't even know who they are. See, look at me, what I'm talking about. Who are you? Greta Small's our alpine skier. She's going to be there. But, and we're also going to be with her coming up, Laura Peele is our world champion in aerial skiing. Crystal Globe winner. Has done very, very well recently in that. We're also going to look at the likes of Jarrod Hughes, Matty Graham, Scotty James, like big names, Brit Cox.
COLIN HILDING: Jakara Anthony.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jakara Anthony, Bel Brockhoff, they're all up there. The day of recording this, Brennan Carey and Carly Calani-Crane both achieved quota spots for Australia for figure skating. So we're going to have at least two figure skaters going.
COLIN HILDING: Bree Walker?
BEN WATERWORTH: Bree Walker, yes. Ash Werner, of course. Sarah Blizzard, who's going to be another interview that we've got coming up. All our bobsled girls out there. So some great names that are out there and some real chances. And I'll get to this virtual medal table in a second because, holy crap, Australia's going to be celebrating in February. This is true. But how are you feeling, Jarrod? Because as I said before, 12 years without a gold. This is weird for us to be doing a winter gold drought. Two Olympics in a row without gold. Is the duck going to be broken?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm hesitant to say. I feel like the Winter Olympics, so many sports are so much less of a lock than the summer. And I feel like the sports that Australia are good at are like the non-lock sports. So to me, like the moguls and like the aerials, you can say somebody's maybe a lock for a medal, but the colour is a lot more difficult to lock in, whereas lots of the summer sports, you can do that. I feel like the winter equivalent is maybe the long track speed skating is somewhere where you could say someone's a lock, but a lot of the other sports, you can't. So I think it's possible. I feel like we're a lock for a medal of some colour, which is going to jinx it, in the moguls.
BEN WATERWORTH: Green, the green and gold medal. And this is the thing I always say with the winter is that obviously it's great that we've had success and it always brings extra attention to the games and more coverage, and it's fantastic. But I just always feel that Australia really goes into it with such high expectations that we come out of them disappointed when we don't win gold. And I think for a country like Australia to come away with one medal at a Winter Olympics is fantastic. I've always told the stories about back in Lillehammer and back in Nagano when we won one medal, and it was such a big deal. It was so great that we then leave Pyeongchang with two silver and a bronze, and we're sad. Like, yeah, I guess you go in sort of with favouritism when you've got someone like a Scotty James or a Brit Cox going in there with all this form. But as we've come off Tokyo, we know that, you know, form going into Olympics means nothing. Look at Jess Fox, how long it took her to finally get a gold. So it would be fantastic to walk away with these medals that they're saying that we're seeing on Grossnet in just a minute. But I mean, you look outside of the whole gold fact, I mean, look at the progression of our Olympic medal tally. 94, one medal. 98, one medal. 2002, two medals. 2006, two medals. And then 2010, 2014, 2018, three medals. So we've gone 1-1, 2-2, 3-3-3, so you would expect four. It's time to get four medals. So even if you walk away with four bronze, seriously, that is a massive achievement for Australia to win the Olympics. And Jarrod, I just think we should celebrate any colour medal if we get one. I think it's a great day for Australia.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, we talked about this during, like, Tokyo, that it's like we downplay a medal if it's not gold. And we shouldn't be doing that at the Summer Olympics, let alone at the Winter Olympics. Like, this is the time where a medal is great. This is the time where the Classic Lion, they made the final, is actually great and amazing. So yeah, I hope. We'll see. We'll see what the coverage is like. I'm sure they will overhype, but fingers crossed they can just hold back a little bit.
BEN WATERWORTH: And I think the thing too, which is good about particularly, say, you talk about Brandon Walker, who is a solid chance of winning a medal in the women's monobob, a gold, very much a chance. And it's a sport that it will not get any coverage, literally until the moment they start, because this is something that nobody knows. People in Australia, you know, a large portion would know who Scotty James is, who Jarrod Hughes are. You know, they would know these names. They would know Britt Cox. They would remember these names from the past. I mean, we joked a little bit in our last sort of looking ahead to the late, great Chumpy Pullen. But people still would know him. When he died, that made, you know, major news in this country. And he never won an Olympic medal, but he was still a very well-known winter athlete in this country. And when Zali Stegel just got elected to parliament, like a lot of that came off the back of, hey, she's a former winter Olympian. So they're known, but I don't know if that will help someone like Bree, that, you know, this isn't a Campbell situation where you've got all this pressure or Jess Fox, like she basically will get a bit of attention beforehand, a couple of extra interviews, and then boom, if she walks away with a medal, she becomes a bit of a household name. I mean, look at Dale Begg-Smith, the great Dale, there he is. These are, mark that off the bingo, Dale Begg-Smith, done. So, yeah, maybe a little bit less pressure, Jarrod, helps some of these athletes.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, I think so. I just don't trust Channel 7.
BEN WATERWORTH: No.
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's been a while since they've had a winter, and it's just, it'll be interesting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, so they haven't had a winter gold since Dale, because obviously they had Pyeongchang didn't win a gold. No gold in 2014, but that was Channel 10. And our last golds that we won were in Vancouver, which Channel 9 had those games. So, yeah, you got to go back to Channel 7. It's desperate for a winter gold. It's been 16 years for them. Now, I'm looking at this Gracenote virtual medal table. Now, it did OK for Tokyo. I think they overestimated the Dutch a bit. Looking here, they've got the Dutch in fifth.
COLIN HILDING: For winter, that's plausible.
BEN WATERWORTH: Speed skating, as we know, seven gold, nine silver, five bronze. They're all coming from the one sport. So let's go over here. They've got Norway in first. Now, I don't even know if this is possible at a winter Olympics. They've got them winning 25 gold. Is that possible? Are there 25 gold medals handed out at a winter Olympics?
COLIN HILDING: Not 25 total, 25 just gold. What's their silver prediction?
BEN WATERWORTH: Seven silver, nine bronze for 41 in total. So Norway's, they've been doing well in the four years between Byung-Chang. We know they're dominant. I mean, God, they were doing well in Tokyo. So look out world. Norway really is coming. They've got, well, they've got listed here Olympic athletes from Russia, but we know they're going to be rock again, if I'm not mistaken. So six gold, 13 silver and 50 in the second. Third, they have Germany, 12 gold, 12 silver, seven bronze, 31 totals. Fourth, they have the United States, 11 gold, six silver, seven bronze, 24. The Dutch fifth, they've got Canada at sixth, Colin. Five gold, eight silver, eight bronze for 21 in total. So a bit of a drop off on the gold count there. Six you're losing apparently from Pyeongchang. How do you feel about that? Sixth place with 588. Is that good for you guys?
COLIN HILDING: I'm happy with it when you look at the countries that are ahead of us, but I'm going to say it better be more than five gold, because I can probably count five gold just in my head right now, and that doesn't even include all the big surprise events. So yeah, we'll do our medal predictions later on, but I'm going to differ from them slightly.
BEN WATERWORTH: So for the rest of the top ten, Switzerland in seventh, Austria in eighth, France ninth, Sweden ten. Now, all right, let's scroll down here to the top 20. Jarrah, I'm just going to ask you flat out, where do you think, where do you think, realistically, if Australia was to be in the top 20, maybe they're not. How do you think we would fare according to Grace Note?
JARROD LOOBEEK: If we're in the top 20, I think like 18.
BEN WATERWORTH: 18, Colin, do you want to hedge a guess here at all?
COLIN HILDING: I'm going to say 19.
BEN WATERWORTH: All right. Well, just quickly before I'll drag this out, the highest place Australia's ever finished at a Winter Olympics was 13th back in Vancouver. That's right, we got 13th at a Winter Olympics. That's a victory in itself. Celebrations on the streets of Sydney. They've got us listed at 16th, but this is having won a total of, here's our magical number of four, four in total, one bronze, zero silver, and three gold. Look at this.
COLIN HILDING: They're calling that you're going to win almost as many gold as Canada?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, well, that's right. Now, it doesn't give me the full list. I'm sure if I dig deeper on this website, they would probably give me the full ones. But the ones here, they've got us, the new events, they've got Australia for gold, for example, Women's Monobob. I'm guessing that's for Brie. So that's the projected medal winner in that event is Australia. And I'm guessing maybe they're looking at a Brit, they're looking at a Scotty, maybe, I don't know, a Laura. So potentially there. But I mean, God, Darren, I'd be thrilled with four. I mean, I'm saying now, again, happy with one, but if we can crack that three, if we can get to four, like party town across the country, national holiday.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, absolutely. And I think I mean, the gold count sounds a little bit iffy, but that silver count sounds spot on for Australia's record of silver Zip the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, which I mean, we went so long without a silver at the winter. And now all of a sudden we seem to keep going too crazy with that. I'm just trying to see. I want to see here with Norway. So what did I say? Twenty five gold. All right. Twenty five gold is where they're coming at. Now, the most Norway have ever won at a Winter Olympics was fourteen back in Pyeongchang, where they topped the medal tally. Now they won four gold in Tokyo. So I had the fourteen and the four. That's only eight. So they're going to win another bloody seven. Now, OK, so if they won, if a nation won twenty five gold in Tokyo at a Summer Olympics, that would have put them on the gold medal tally in fourth. So they would have just just behind Japan, who won twenty seven gold. Great Britain won twenty two. So there's I'm actually on board with this. Like, I think Grace had inflated the Dutch for Tokyo. Like, yeah, whatever. But I'm down for the Norwegians winning twenty five fucking gold medals. Like, what is going on? Colin, you're shaking your head. You don't believe it.
COLIN HILDING: I don't think I don't see how that's even possible. Like, there must be a typo on there. They meant to hit a one, because he said, what, twenty four overall?
BEN WATERWORTH: Twenty four. Yeah, twenty five. Twenty five.
COLIN HILDING: So I'm guessing they meant to hit the fifteen and maybe hit the two by accident.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, maybe. I don't know. But I'm liking it, though. I'm doing liking this, how they're going there. I'm looking here. They've got a cool little table here of the host nation. The percentage of medals increased from the previous Olympics here. So they're kind of by the looks of things with China. So they're predicting two gold, four silver, two bronze. So what's that? A total of eight, which back in Pyeongchang, China won nine. So they're saying they're going to win less medals than they won back then for the host ones. But they've got the percentages here of medals changed. So Canada only got a 25% increase of medals between Calgary and Sarajevo. For Vancouver, they only got an 8% increase of total medals between Turin and Canada. Vancouver, thank you, Ben. That makes sense. The biggest one here, France. 350% increase from Albuville to Calgary. They only got two medals in Calgary and nine in Albuville. So pretty impressive there. And 113% for Korea. They got 17 in Pyeongchang and eight back in Sochi. I love statistics like this. So there you go. If Bree doesn't win the gold, do we get the blame or does Grace Note get the blame? I think Grace Note.
COLIN HILDING: Well, you did the interview yourself.
BEN WATERWORTH: According to this, it will be Australia, USA, USA in the women's model. I'm saying, no, fuck this, gold for Bree, silver for Ash. Done. Both sleds called Ben. Boom, boom, gold, done, silver.
COLIN HILDING: You know, if they're calling the sleds Ben, that's how you know they're not going to win.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hey, this is a problem.
COLIN HILDING: You should have told them, name it Colin and Jarrod, and we have a shot.
BEN WATERWORTH: No, it comes down to the fact that the reason why I've never won any medals in my individual, you know, events from my interviews is because no one's ever called anything Ben. That's why, like, you know, it comes with the territory. It's a dual thing going on there. It's that simple. Let's talk about mascots. Our favourite part. Now, famously, our last episode when we did this, Boorang Soorang. Yep, that happened. Um, we're going to talk about the great mascots of Bing Duen Duen and Shui Ron Ron. Now, if you're not on board with the days. But Bing Duen Duen and Shui Ron Ron. Isn't that song? The Du Ron Ron Ron, the Du Ron, right, like the Shui Ron Ron, the Shui Ron, like that's great. So, um, Bing Duen Duen is a panda. Of course he is. What else would it be? Um, with a suit of ice, heart of gold, and a love of all things, winter sports. The panda is ready to share the true spirit of the Olympics with the whole world. Yeah, of course, of course he is. It, I don't know if it's a he, it's probably an anamorphic. They. There we go.
COLIN HILDING: Anthropomorphic.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you. That one.
COLIN HILDING: That's your kryptonite, that word.
BEN WATERWORTH: Boorang. Um, Shui Ron Ron is an anthropomorphic, that word. Um, a Chinese lantern. Here we go. Get the kids involved. Lanterns represent harvest, celebration, warmth, and light. The wish will shape at the top symbolises auspicious happiness. The continuous pattern of the dove of peace and the temple of heaven symbolise a peaceful friendship and highlights the characteristics of the place where the events are held. The decorative pattern incorporates the traditional Chinese paper cut art. The snow on the face represents the meaning of a fall of seasonal snow. I'm sorry, the marketing department thinks way too hard. It's a fucking lantern. Like, seriously, it looks cool. It's called Shui Ron Ron. The kids will buy it. Like, I mean, no kid's going to be going, Mummy, mummy, mummy, does this have a fall of seasonal snow, giving promise of a fruitful year? Yes, it does, Jimmy. Oh, yeah, I love Shui Ron Ron. Jarrod, what's your take on Bing Duan Duan and Shui Ron Ron?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I'm divided. I think Shui Ron Ron is a legend. But Bing Duan Duan looks dead inside. I really hate, I think more than anything, I hate the ice suit. To me, it looks like a diving suit or like a space outfit or a hazmat suit. But like, where's the face covering? There's no visor he's going to...
COLIN HILDING: In your mask?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's just, it's not great.
BEN WATERWORTH: But I mean, come on, Shui Ron Ron, though, like a literal lantern. Like, this is outside. Like, so many of these mascots recently have all blended. These aren't the opening ceremonies. They're all the same, right? They're kind of crap. But like, this is something different. Like, I want a Shui Ron Ron figure. I want a Shui Ron Ron lantern.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, 100%.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, what's your take on Bing Duan Duan? Can we just keep saying Bing Duan Duan and Shui Ron Ron? Like, seriously.
COLIN HILDING: I like both Duan Duan and Ron Ron. I will say they kind of clash together, though. Like, usually you have the mascots and you look at them like, I can see a connection here. This clearly was two completely different designers who had no input on the other one. And one looks like it's, I don't know, from a really friendly baby cartoon. The other one looks like it's, well, Shui Ron Ron's some kind of a Power Ranger or something. But yeah, they definitely don't look like they belong together. But I actually don't mind that. And I like the ice suit. And I kind of like it for the same reasons Jarrod's knocking it. I was looking at it, thinking it looks like a face sticking out of a diaper. And it's memorable. If nothing else, it's memorable.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm trying to find. So apparently they were chosen from a design competition. So there were 5816 designs. 10 were shortlisted. So I'm trying to see if we can find the other 10, which I can't seem to find. I mean, the one thing I'll say, panda, cliché, come on. I mean, back in the Summer Olympics, we had five and one of them was a panda. So yeah, we had a koi, a giant panda, an Olympic flame, a Tibetan antelope, and a swallow. Good for them. And then when Nanjing had the Youth Olympics, what did they have then? They had a rain flower stone. Well, that sounds boring. Come to Nanjing, have a stone, everybody. We can throw it at the evil people who go against the communist empire of China. Yeah, look, I have to say that, you know, when you have, I don't know, I don't see this being duen-duen hate. I like being duen-duen-duen. I can't even say it right. Being duen-duen, it kind of weirdly looks like a tic-tac, sort of like a panda stuck in a tic-tac.
COLIN HILDING: Ah, I see that.
BEN WATERWORTH: You know, just pop it, and there you go in the mouth.
COLIN HILDING: Take two duen-duens and call me in the morning.
BEN WATERWORTH: But again, I'm not trying to be disrespectful, if this is just a part of the Chinese language, but I love the fact that you've got to have bing-duen-duen and shui-run-run. It's not just bing-duen and shui-run. It's bing-duen-duen and shui-run-run. Like, I mean, if it was like, Sid-Sid and Millie-Millie and Ollie-Ollie, like, you know, Bu-rang-Bu-rang and Su-rang-Su-rang, like, you know, it gets a bit catchy, right? You know, Izzy-Izzy, that kind of works. But I'm on board. Like, I'm saying this now. I think possibly that Shooi-Ron-Ron might be my favourite mascot since Izzy. I like Shooi-Ron-Ron.
COLIN HILDING: I was going to ask if Shooi-Ron-Ron's our favourite of the two, because I think all of us are leaning that way.
BEN WATERWORTH: Yeah, Jarrod, are you...?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Yeah, a little pumpkin head.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're literally...
COLIN HILDING: He's just cute!
BEN WATERWORTH: Like, a little red thing with, like, a... You know, what's that on Mario, those Goomba things that you used to have to kill, right?
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: Mario fans on this show? Yep, cool. I'm on board. I'm on board with Bing Duen Duen and Shui Ron Ron. I hope that... Have we got the Paris ones yet? Is it, like, I don't know, like a little pair of, like, dust marks from running away? Or is it, like, a frog? I don't know. Like, what are we gonna have?
COLIN HILDING: Hello to all our French listeners. Let's look up and see what our percentage is.
JARROD LOOBEEK: A little Spanish, obviously.
BEN WATERWORTH: We like France again. I meant to be bagging out Britain. Again, I'm still trying to think of what, you know, Kangaroo for Brisbane. But yeah, there you go. We haven't had the medals released yet, which I'm sad. Obviously, we're doing a medal rankings episode, but we get to have the medals released. Just quickly, the logo. I'm a sucker for design. I like kind of the logo. I've got to say, one of the more memorable ones we've had recently, Pyeongchang's logo was terrible. The Tokyo one was fine. It was better than the first one that they released, that they got banned for copyright. But what do we think of the Beijing ones? It's kind of like a, is it meant to be like a lion or something along those lines? It's kind of fancy looking. Colin, what's your take on the Beijing one?
COLIN HILDING: I'm Googling it right now.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're Googling it right now.
COLIN HILDING: I clicked on it. I saw the Paralympic one, but there's actually a fun one here that this isn't real, obviously, but somebody just did a logo and put an X through it. I'm like, I don't think that's the right one there. I see it. Now, what's your issue with this, Ben? What's your problem?
BEN WATERWORTH: No, I like it. Seriously, it's probably the nicest one we've had since Rio. I mean, that's only to Olympics, but it's not that much of a stretch.
COLIN HILDING: Solid font, nice colours in there, uses all the Olympic ring colours.
BEN WATERWORTH: It is the best winter one we've had since Vancouver, because, I mean, God, Pyeongchang was a box, and Sochi was literally font. So, Jarrod, your take on the Beijing logo?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's all right. I mean, a little bit of crown scribble on a wall is what I'm seeing. But I had they put effort into it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I really don't get how, like, Olympic logos were like the key, that was the marketing, like, why are they getting so boring, like, all of a sudden? Like, I just, I don't get it. Like, even the Paris one's fine, but it's kind of just, I guess, basic. But the LA one's trying to be all fancy and like street and like, let's have a different version for a different day of the week. You do you. Fucking LA. But I mean, I'm still intrigued to find out what the Brisbane one's going to be. So, okay, I've got the, I wanted to find out what the emblem means. So it was designed by artist Lin Chunzhen. It combines traditional and modern elements of Chinese culture, as well as featuring a bonding the passion and vitality of winter sports. It's inspired by a Chinese character for winter. It resembles a skater at the top and a skier at the bottom. The flowing ribbon-like motif between the symbolise, them symbolisers those countries, rolling mountains, Olympic venue ski. Okay, it looks good. I don't need to read all this crap.
COLIN HILDING: I'm definitely seeing the skier and the skater now that you mentioned it. It's very obvious.
BEN WATERWORTH: Hands down, right. I really want to find out these other mascots that were turned down. This is annoying me now, really, when it comes down to it. Couple of other things before we close out. Obviously, we don't do things like predictions. That's our preview episode. We don't get that far ahead. Colin, I touched on it briefly at the beginning. Team Canada have announced they've officially changed suppliers for their costumes, the uniforms. You've dropped the Bay, bye-bye Bay. That was a long partnership. I don't know how long for, but you've gone to everybody's favourite fricking activewear. It costs about $500 for a pair of socks. Lulu fricking lemon. Now, iconic Canadian brand. I shouldn't bag it out. It's obviously a homegrown brand that you guys love there. But fucking hell, I could barely afford the Bay stuff. I'm going to pay like $300 for a pair of mittens. Thanks, Lulu Lemon.
COLIN HILDING: You know, what's funny about this is that Lulu Lemon, it's started to become a big thing, I don't know, let's say like five years ago maybe. But at the time, I swear to you, it was marketed just as women's activewear. So in my mind, maybe because I've never purchased it, because it is outrageously priced, I still am assuming that everybody is going to be wearing like women's tights and everything, and sports jogging bras. I don't know. I don't have enough experience with Lulu Lemon now over the last couple of years to know what the male side of that brand is.
BEN WATERWORTH: Look, when I was there, I would always be baffled that there would always be a freaking lineup to get into Lulu Lemon. You had, I guess, door bitch on the door with a headphone on basically going, yep, we can let two. They treated it like it was a freaking nightclub.
COLIN HILDING: It's Lulu fucking Lemon. You just described their logo, too. I just love that your description of the door lady is their logo.
BEN WATERWORTH: It's a door bitch, basically. And not just a woman, a door bitch can be a man. When I went to Lulu Lemon, they had male door bitches as well. But you would go in there, and it's very well-fanced. It's all done out nicely and everything, and the music's good, and it's all kind of a bit of a team environment. They've got the wall of all the staff members and all that kind of stuff. Great, good on you, Lulu Lemon. But I'm walking around. I'm going, okay, cool. These pants look all right. Fucking like $200. And I saw the same things in Walmart a week before for $10. I'm like, what the hell? Because it's got a thing on it, felt the same, looked the same. And clearly I'm very posh with my brands. But good for them. I'm looking forward to Team Canada jackets looking like a basic thing you can buy at Walmart.
COLIN HILDING: Yeah, I'm sure it's going to be very high quality. Yeah, of course. I'm sure it's going to be comfortable. I mean, it also makes sense to partner up with something that makes sense for athletes. You know, they're going to be providing the athlete where that makes sense. I'm hoping they have like a discount sale. Like I know we scooped up a lot of the Bay stuff on the last days of the Olympics.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm still waiting for you to post that to me, by the way, Colin. Yeah, I can see it, right? I'm not wearing it, am I? If I get it, I get it before Beijing, who knows?
COLIN HILDING: You haven't paid for it yet. Don't worry about it.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm ready to go, mate. Just fucking tell me when to send the money.
COLIN HILDING: Today is the day where Jamie put stuff in the mail. I just have to remember to tell her.
BEN WATERWORTH: Jamie, you were downstairs 10 minutes ago. Come on.
COLIN HILDING: Casper, come get this box.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want my Gordon Bombay Funko Pop.
COLIN HILDING: But no, I'm excited that they have quality athlete wear for the athletes. I still am interested to see what their men's apparel will look like. But no, it's like it's weird that it's taken this long, but it's really you say that, you know, oh, you get this at Walmart. Like, I can't imagine them ever going to someone Walmart. I wonder if this is something we need it to be something you associate with hard quality clothes, because I know a couple of the Olympics ago, McDonald's was like a sponsor. I can't remember if it was here in the States. McDonald's are the Olympic sponsor, and it was just all these endless jokes of McDonald's for the Olympics. I mean, you even got some of that here with like Kraft dinner. But if you have like cheap clothes that everybody could buy at Walmart, you're going to be like, whoa, we're really giving the best to our athletes, huh?
BEN WATERWORTH: I feel it's going the opposite because the team USA, their apparel is Ralph Lauren. So I mean, it's kind of I feel it's gone the complete opposite direction. And we've got Assics now in Australia. I mean, I'm not a massive Adidas fan, but I feel like Adidas is a little bit more affordable than Assics. And the Adidas stuff looks so much better. Like the Assics stuff is OK, but it's very basic. I kind of like what, you know, I bring back Nike, they're my favourite. Jarrod, I'm assuming you're aware. There's a Lululemon in Hobart. I did not realise that when I was in the city the other week. So I'm assuming if Lululemon is in Hobart, it's in Sydney. I knew it was in Adelaide, so I knew it was around the place. Are you familiar with Lululemon, Jarrod? Are you a shopper at Lululemon?
JARROD LOOBEEK: I am familiar with. I'm not a shopper. I think my experience and thoughts of it is similar to Colin's. To me, it's like a female activewear brand. So I assume they're branching out, but in my head, it's the same thing. Everyone's going to rock up in leggings to the opening ceremony.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, now I'm excited for our opening closing ceremony outfit now.
BEN WATERWORTH: I'm just wondering if we'll get some of the Team Canada merch in Australia, because, you know, Lululemon might rep it out. Who knows? But otherwise, I'll hit up the Team Store, Colin, and maybe I'll get them by Milana Cortina, basically, if I get you to buy me anything. Jarrod, did you get your Penilexiac Cheerios?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, that's too waiting.
BEN WATERWORTH: Come on, Colin.
COLIN HILDING: It's not my fault. Canada Post.
BEN WATERWORTH: What did you send it? Ship mail? Like, God, you cheap bastard.
COLIN HILDING: Well, Canada Post gives two options, like with tracking or without tracking. Without tracking, they basically said it could be there in four to six weeks. With tracking, they're like, it'll be there in two weeks, but it'll cost you an extra $80.
BEN WATERWORTH: When I did that, when I had to send stuff back, when I moved back here, it beat me. And I didn't pay for tracking because I was cheap. I got here and it was already here. You should have shipped yourself Canada Post.
COLIN HILDING: I should have.
BEN WATERWORTH: I would have paid a fucking two weeks quarantine. It probably cost about the same, $3,000 or so. But anyway, yeah, Jarrod, I have no updates on the Australian team, I believe it's the Alaskans, and I'm hopeful that the AOC website will do merch like they did for the Summons. I really hope they do release the individual sports, which I doubt they will, because I don't know if they do sort of winter merchandise, but I'd buy it no matter what. A couple of things as well. I re-listened to our, as I said, our Looking Ahead to Pyeongchang, and a couple of things actually really stood out from that episode that I wanted to mention. Kind of a nostalgia moment here on Off The Podium. When we were talking about the mascots, that's when Colin introduced us to the nightmare that was Teddy Ruxman. Jarrod, have you lived that down, that one of it eating its circuit board? Do you remember that?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, never.
BEN WATERWORTH: Never? The ones that I thought were, like, I mentioned the late great chumpie, Paulin, but Colin's just numerous names. He didn't know who we were talking about. The one he kept mentioning was Bumpy Salinger. And we did say in that episode, if we ever got chumpie Paulin on the show, we would refer to him as Bumpy Salinger. So I'm sad I didn't remember that. When we got chumpie on, we didn't call him that. But the two that I thought also stood out, and maybe this is, mentioned some athletes now on the show for forward predicting. You were talking up one of the deferler points sisters, and then you mentioned John Montgomery. And you were like, oh, one of our great, you know, blubber. John Montgomery went on to become a guest here on Off The Podium. The one that stood out for me, though, and I would like to apologise to our guest on the show, because I was a bit of a creepy old Ben back then. We started talking about Jamie Saleh, and went into a bit of a perv mode for about 10 minutes. Literally, in that episode, said, and maybe we'll play a clip of this. I think we should play a clip of this. I basically like, whatever happened to her? So let's hear a clip of what I was basically saying then, to kind of go how well we would then go with God having a future guest on this show. I nearly found a future wife in Jamie Saleh back in 2002, but she...
COLIN HILDING: Oh, everybody remembers her, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: What's she up to these days, Colin? You're Canadian? I'm sure she's on the news every... Isn't she the Kardashians of Canada, surely, by now?
COLIN HILDING: Yes. No, I Google... Quickly Google Google it! I didn't put anything other than her name, but hey, you might as well throw it in Google if you want.
BEN WATERWORTH: I just have actually Googled her. I was like, wow, she posts for FHM. Just bear with me, keep talking. So as you can see, I didn't even know what happened to her, apparently, and yet we get her on the show, and then we have one of our best...
COLIN HILDING: Well, that's why we get them on the show, to answer those type of questions.
BEN WATERWORTH: Just like, where is she? Who is she? She's hot! She looks good in FHM! And then the first and only guest that we've ever made cry on the show. So, look at that! Look at us go with that. That was one of your favourite interviews, wasn't it, Jarrod?
JARROD LOOBEEK: No, 100%.
BEN WATERWORTH: You're listening to it today. You just can't get enough. So, any Colin want to send out some good vibes so that when we listen to our Looking Ahead To Milan Cortina episode in 2025, we can say, oh, I'm glad you mentioned Wayne Gretzky, because that was a great interview we got with you.
COLIN HILDING: I would say the Deferla Pointe Sisters, but, well, we don't want to run into the same problems. But let's just say the Deferla Pointe Sisters. Let's add Mikel Kingsbury in there. Let's just add the entire Canadian moguls skiing team.
BEN WATERWORTH: Done. Jarrod, who do you want to give a shout out to?
JARROD LOOBEEK: It's got to be our mixed curling team, right?
BEN WATERWORTH: Yes, exactly. I'm so frickin, they posted the other day saying that, oh, we lost this event, but we're on to the next. I'm thinking, oh, don't let that be the qualifying one. Don't let us jinx you. But again, I'm blaming Channel 7 because Channel 7 have done filming with them as well. So it's not just us, all right? Channel 7 are pumping their tyres as well. Any final thoughts on Beijing? Because we will come back together for our preview basically a couple of days before it. So it's our last chance to get anything off your chest about the Winter Olympics, the real Olympics. They're close, Jarrod. Anything where you're pumped up, get excited for the Winter Olympics. Come on.
JARROD LOOBEEK: Excited for Shui Ron Ron. I have a Shui Ron Ron is prominent. I want to see little Shui Ron Rons lighten up the ski jump all the way down. These little lanterns. Shui Ron Ron.
BEN WATERWORTH: They better have, like, give them the little mascots, right? Like, on the podium. So I want them to give out. Like, Shui Ron Ron, we should say, is the Paralympics mascot. So we're going to be focusing a lot more on the Paralympics. But yeah, give me some little bing duen duens. Maybe we can, like, you know, message Bree and be like, hey, when you're in the golf, can we have your bing duen duen? Like, she wouldn't want that, would she?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Like, she gets a golf?
COLIN HILDING: What did you just say?
BEN WATERWORTH: Just out of context message. Hey, Ash Werner, how are you? Can I have you bing duen duen? Restraining order to Ben Waterworth. Wow, that would be quick. Colin, anything you want to get off your chest?
COLIN HILDING: Not to end on a negative note. I'm hoping it's not a negative note, but we were so close with Tokyo to having fans in attendance and all that. Things just went south within the last couple of weeks. I'm really hopeful that everything because not only are we going to lose NHL players if things go poorly, but we'd probably lose hockey altogether if it happens as close to the games as it did with Tokyo. But we're this close to having fans. Let's stay positive that we're going to have fans in the stands, that we're going to have big turnout, that there's not going to be any positive cases, and athletes having to drop out and all that.
BEN WATERWORTH: I want my cowbells. I want my cowbells back for the winters. Come on, we've got to have cowbells.
COLIN HILDING: We'll have our annual daily cowbell.
BEN WATERWORTH: More. More cowbell. Every single day. But we're looking forward to it. Obviously, we're going to do the commentary again. I know everybody loved it. And I just want to say today, just to date this episode, I'm not going to say who it's with because this episode won't air for quite some time, but the guest that I interviewed today for a future episode Off The Podium was from a sport that we did commentary of. And I mentioned during that interview that we did commentary, and she wanted to see it. So I sent it to her. Haven't gotten feedback from it yet, but our one feedback we got from Max. He loved it. He wanted to send it to the International Fencing Federation. So hey, if this commentary goes well, it could go to the international sporting body of that sport, and we could be on the plane in Paris. Fingers crossed. You never, never know. Now obviously we've got a bunch of great interviews that are airing, and as you would have seen us announce recently, we're dropping an interview, an episode basically every two days now. We've got so many coming your way. And just as a bit of a teaser, I will say in terms of our winter guests, I obviously mentioned Greta Small, Laura Peele. They're coming up. And I also mentioned Sarah Blizzard, another great bobsled interview that we've got there as well. But outside of some of those athletes as well, Colin, you join me for a couple of them as well. We've got a couple of figure skaters coming up, some sledge hockey players as well, a player, I guess, just one there as well. But Eric Radford coming up, great Canadian figure skater as well, and our sledge hockey player Jack Wallace from the US as well. You were on board for that one in that interview as well. Superman. Exactly, literally Superman. I mean, gosh, if you want to see a good-looking rooster, check out him. Jamie probably has looked in by now, and she's on the way to leaving you once again. Henry Cavill Jr. So, plenty of great interviews, and between those, we've got a great summer interviews as well. And our next one that we're all going to be joining together next month, the sports episode. Now, Jarrod, we tease this every day in Tokyo. We're going to talk about this in the sports episode. Are you prepping your notes? Are you ready to kind of defend your beloved dressage and then go up against the hatred of skateboard street?
JARROD LOOBEEK: 100%. I'm ready for the rants. I'm ready to tear some sports apart. I'm ready to build some up, and I'm ready to just complain about everything pretty much.
BEN WATERWORTH: Colin, are you on the same page?
COLIN HILDING: Yes. I don't know what the question was.
BEN WATERWORTH: That was the question. We're going to do an episode just on sports, talking all the things to do with sports at the Olympics. What should be there, shouldn't be there.
COLIN HILDING: Oh, yeah.
BEN WATERWORTH: All those kind of fun things.
COLIN HILDING: I've got some great ideas for sports of the future, so let's preview that.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it brake ski curling?
COLIN HILDING: Absolutely.
BEN WATERWORTH: Is it the shoey run run dance? The shoey run run off? Everybody do the shoey run run. The shoey run run, the shoey run. Great song, that song. But stay tuned. Plenty of stuff to come off the podium. We're very, very busy, and we know you're loving the content. And if you're not, well, you should be, because it's bloody good. But Jarrod, always good to have you. I miss you, Jarrod. I miss talking to you. Can you come on more often, please?
JARROD LOOBEEK: Oh, you know it, but not for athlete interviews, because I can't jinx my perfect record.
BEN WATERWORTH: True. Yes, you need to stay completely neutral. You are the Switzerland of the host on the show. And Colin, yeah, I talk to you more. But it's always good to talk to you about the Olympics. You're a busy man. Tonight it's Olympics. Tomorrow it's James Bond. The next day you might get to sleep. But thank you for joining us.
COLIN HILDING: You're welcome, as always.
BEN WATERWORTH: Thank you. And to me, you're both welcome that I was here too. Everybody tune in.
COLIN HILDING: Nobody said anything, man.
BEN WATERWORTH: Social media, Off The Podium. Subscribe and all those great channels and everything else in between. But until we next speak again, my name is Shui Ron Ron Bing Duan Duan. And good night.
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